“Hello Hugo
The secret is inside the empire.
We can get it back.
The fated son of Daedalus.
Add the numbers.”

Hugo is the real name of French artist Madeon. The image itself is a parody of the cover for Madeon’s “Adventure” album. The obvious idea here is Sonic Adventure 3 (!!!) but there’s more clues in the image, possibly to the game’s plot.

“The secret is inside the empire” could potentially be referring to the Eggman Empire? Not sure. Same with the next line.

“The fated son of Daedalus” is most definitely a reference to Shadow. In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of Daedalus, who built his wings in a tower. He flew too close to the sun and his wings burnt up, causing him to fall. Shadow was created in Space Colony ARK, and after the battle with Finalhazard, he fell to Earth.

The tags on the Tumblr cross-post include - “verse un, line dix et line douze”. Lines 10 and 12 of the Madeon song “Nonsense” are as follows:

“And don’t you think that I’m a runner”
“Shooting at the moon to bring the sun up”

The first line works as a general Sonic reference, whereas the second is very obviously a Sonic Adventure 2 reference - Eggman fired a warning shot at the moon with the Eclipse Cannon to strike fear into the nation.

Someone on 8chan realized the meaning behind “Add the numbers” - if you add every number mentioned in the Sonic Tumblr’s posts and tags from the initial 25th anniversary post up until the day of the teaser being posted, you get 98 - 1998 is the release year of Sonic Adventure in Japan.

Additionally, 25th anniversary advertisements have been surfacing in various locations with the tagline - “Join the Adventure”;

All I ask is for a new Chao garden. It's been 15 years since SA2 and I still go back because I enjoy the chao garden so much. (I used to try making up my own types at times too. Some of them were silly, some of them obvious. One idea I thought would be kind of interesting is Chao types based off of Wisps since Sega seems to like using those too) I'd love to see what they could add considering even just the unused SA2 animations.

It's a little frustrating seeing how tech has evolved over the years yet it's not used for some of the older interesting ideas in earlier gens that were held back by technology at the time.

Also even people that say they dislike SA2 usually praise the Chao Garden too. I think the market for it is there.

GeneHF from Sonic Retro, a longtime and reputable member who has been in contact with SEGA in various ways throughout the years, has clarified that he has information from an inside source that indicates a major announcement is going to occur sometime this week.

- Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, personally still feel better than everything else I've ever played. THAT SAID. You actually have near nothing to compare it to. Everyone stopped making games like
Sonic Adventure 1 and 2... After Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. The most recent time I've seen a game where the goal is to get to the goal, and nothing else, (admittedly linear gameplay) is literally Sonic '06.

- CHAO. MORE CHAO. MORE CI MEMBERS. MORE FUN.

- The Adventure games are some of the best Sonic Games, only matched by Sonic 3, and I felt hidden potential in Sonic '06.

-No one knows for sure that this has been worked on since 2013 but I'll let you have this one.

-Saying that a game was good "at it's core" isn't good enough for me. If one of the game's major mechanics is not good, the game is not good. Much like Unleashed, the Werehog was bad and it pulled the whole game down with it.

-I don't know about you, but I played SA2 for a few months many years ago and haven't really played it since.

-If you try playing SA1/2 nowadays, at least with the PC versions, they are clunky. Incredibly clunky. Enough to put me off playing after two levels clunky. The controls are not tight and I really don't appreciate losing a level because the camera glitched/scripted event goes wrong/I click a button to do one thing and it does another (I didn't want to home in on that! Damnit Sonic stop trying to roll over, great now I got shot and fell off the stage, these controls are tight!)

-SA1/2 are the best games you've played? Gosh I feel bad for you, haha! Ever played Rayman? The last major title came out in 2013 which has linear gameplay

-I'm much in the same boat as Ivogoji. I've never had a Chaos Chao, I don't think I've ever had a Chao be old enough to die, etc. Not a major selling point to me (gets banned from Chao Island)

-Sonic 2 is the best (early?) Sonic game and you know it ;) Again with the hidden potential stuff? 06 may as well have been an alpha release. Almost unplayable bad. The only thing worse than the gameplay is the story!

-If they charge full price for a game that plays just like SA1/SA2 I wouldn't buy it. Come to think of it, I don't think I've actually bought any Sonic game released after Generations. I've thought every demo was bad. They've certainly put me off the franchise. They reeled me back in with Generations and then dropped the ball with Sonic Boom.

-Wisps were garbage, and either way, I'm pretty sure Colours just ran a nerfed version of the Unleashed/Generations engine designed for the Wii.

-I feel like even if the game is bad, most people will be blinded by nostalgia so SEGA will win again! We'll never get a good Sonic game ever again!!11!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if Sonic Team(or anyone else for that matter) makes Sonic Adventure 3 in any official capacity, it won't live up to expectations. 3D Sonic has always gotten mixed reception(even generations has its critics and even 06 has its fans), but for some reason, those nostalgic for the Adventure games have put Sonic Adventure 3 on a pedestal as if using that title would automatically make it the Holy Grail of 3D Sonic. Need I remind you how many thought Sonic 4 was going to be the second coming of S3K only to be horribly disappointed?

That said, while I haven't played a console Sonic since Heroes and haven't played a handheld Sonic since Rush 3, I mean colors, from what I've read, the best starting point for the next Main Sonic game would be to port Generations to PS4, Xbone, and WIIU, Update the PC version to ensure compatibility with all modern OSes, and do a good job of it, and then spend a year or two creating a bunch of quality new levels, building a fully playable Tails and Knuckles(and possibly others, but these two should take priority) and then commit to regular DLC for a few years. Each new 3D Sonic seems to introduce some interesting ideas, but a lot of this experimentation should be done behind the scenes or with side games rather than main titles, and some of the ideas probably would've been better received if they weren't in a Sonic game(Werehog sounds to be a decent hack-and-slash game in his own right, but people don't want hack-and-slash in their Sonic).

Just so you know, I am blind.

Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings.

To be honest I've never had the issues people complain about with the adventure games. I'm not sure if they're just unlucky or not used to older games. The only major glitch I've seen by default is the tram hovering above Sonic in City Escape on the PC version, and that's not in the original game.

I've seen some complain about it feeling too automatic, but that's exactly how I feel about the newer Sonic games. I don't really like the boost mechanic either.

Simple doesn't always mean it's bad. SA2 came out 15 years ago (06 is also 10 years old now), I'm sure even if they did try to outright make SA3 (title and all in other words) it'd be a different experience from both of those games.

However I understand that I'm biased. I've played them many times over the years so I know them in ways newer players wouldn't get. I'll admit part of the reason I've played them so much is because of Chao. City Escape for rings, Prison Island for hero chaos drives, Iron Gate for dark chaos drives were my most replayed to the point it's pretty much automatic now. While I wouldn't be this way if I hadn't grown up with them, I still think there's an enjoyable experience to be had. I can admit when something I used to like isn't enjoyable anymore.

I still think there's a lot more that can be done with the Chao system even if Sega doesn't see that.

Even the content that was cut from SA2 would have added more for the Chao and player to do.